PwC’s Xero Accounting Partnership Goes Global

Corporate audit and accounting company PwC is expanding its existing collaboration with small business cloud accounting company Xero.

The companies announced in a press release Tuesday (June 18) that their expanded collaboration enables local PwC firms to connect their clients with Xero solutions, building on their existing relationship within the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Their expanded deal will focus on bridging small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S., Asia and Europe to Xero’s cloud accounting technologies.

PwC will connect clients to Xero tools via Xero’s API offering, the firms noted, and will continue to collaborate on the development of new financial products like the PwC Cashflow Coach, a cash flow management solution they designed for joint customers. PwC noted that it plans to use data within the Xero system to develop and deploy new products.

In a statement, Xero Chief Product Officer Anna Curzon pointed to the limited adoption of cloud adoption within the small business community.

“Internationally, less than 20 percent of small businesses use cloud accounting technologies,” she said. “Australia and New Zealand are much further advanced in this area; there is a huge opportunity to bring the benefits of real-time tools to businesses and advisors a round the world. This alliance means Xero and PwC can work together to help small businesses increase productivity and provide them with valuable time back in their day.”

Curzon added that accountants and bookkeepers, as well as their small business clients, need intuitive digital solutions. In another statement, PwC New Zealand Digital Innovation Leader for Global Entrepreneurial and Private Business Scott McLiver pointed to the growing influence of the cloud in helping businesses embrace digitization.

“Business owners are increasingly embracing the cloud for their key business systems,” he said. “For the simple reason that the benefits of doing this are simply enormous. The access to business data from Xero allows PwC to build products that solve key business problems.

“By leveraging powerful cloud accounting technology to build digital products with PwC’s knowledge and technical capability, we can help small business owners to be successful in ways that previously weren’t possible,” he added.